Backpack Journalism
Bearing witness through journalism and media
Every other summer, about 16 Creighton students and several faculty members travel to a community in search of a story. It might be to rural Alaska or postwar Uganda. Wherever they go, they bring a passion for social justice, journalism, and film-making.
The students immerse themselves in these communities through interviewing, filming, recording and blogging for five weeks. When they return to Creighton, they take the stories they’ve collected and develop them into a short documentary film.
The 2016 Backpack Journalism group traveled to Nogales, Arizona, to make a film about the U.S. and Mexico border, the people who live there and the migrants who pass through. The film will focus on the lived experience of migration in North America as interpreted through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching.
“Mother Kuskokwim,” the 2014 Backpack Journalism film set in Bethel, Alaska, received the award of “Best Short Feature” at the 2015 Princeton Environmental Film Festival.
Travel the world like a journalist.
To get involved, contact Carol Zuegner, associate professor of journalism, or John O’Keefe, professor of theology.
